Tachikawa is a big city and there are many restaurants to go to for casual eat outs. Only a handful is worth going to though. On my previous posts, I showed you a couple of restaurants that I frequently go to in Tachikawa. Trying once is one thing but re-visiting the same restaurant is totally another thing. Good restaurants know how to grab people’s attention and attract people to come back.

I usually try new restaurants as I’m still new in the town and it feels like there is a lot left to explore. My recent favorite is a cafe called “Adam’s awesome pie.” Located on the north side of the station, there’s a space under construction which is the area that Tachihi holdings is developing a massive complex called “Green Springs” scheduled to open in April 2020. Right across the construction site is where this cafe “Adam’s awesome pie” is located.

I personally think the location is great. This is definitely the street a lot of people are passing through. Even more coming when the complex is open in just 6 months. IKEA is so close that you can actually see the building from this cafe. This IKEA is one of a few IKEA that can be accessed by walk. You can imagine how many people actually walk through this street every day.

Lunch is also available

The cafe is located on the 2nd floor of the building. Look for the red parasols and you won’t miss this cafe. The cafe does not only serve drinks but also lunch as well.

Me and my family visited this place later afternoon but the place was full of people. There was no seats available for three of us but it was not an issue because we were for the terrace seats. The cafe seats outside is always not popular compared to the ones inside in Tokyo for some reason. It was getting hotter in Tokyo but it was still great to stay outside. This cafe, especially, has a really big and nice terrace space. Do try to go outside when you have a chance to visit this place.

There is a couple of lunch menu available. My recommendation is the Salad bar lunch. There are 7 or 8 different kinds of very lightly flavored salads and you can refill them as many time as you like. I usually prefer meat over salad but there was something about their salad. It was somehow super good. Maybe it’s the way they prepare the veggies I don’t know. Apparently, their theme is to eat something healthy.
Well, I am not sure because there was an appetizing flyer of massive pizza on the wall.

It’s not just veggies and salads that they offer. There’s a burger too and it was really good. I still recommend going for all you can eat salad just because I rarely see it.

The terrace sets are actually bigger than it seem from outside. It would be very nice to stay outside on a sunny day watching people passing by on the street.
Even though the seats inside the cafe was full, this terrace seats were almost empty. If you don’t mind staying outside, these seats are definitely the way to go.

I’m very happy with the location and the food quality of this cafe. I think I know why this place is popular among locals. Their choice of veggies, cups, plates, chairs and tables, make everything look photogenic on Instagram.
If you have a chance to come to Tachikawa, try this place and let me know what you think.

People say there are three kinds of items that every household with a kid should own in Tokyo. They are a drum type washer/dryer, a dish washer, and an electric bicycle that you can carry your kid. I’ve been living in Oakhouse Tachikawa Garden Town in Tachikawa with my wife and baby daughter for a year now but we did not have either three of the items…. well, until last week.
We finally got an electric bike and It has been unbelievably helpful. We definitely should have gotten this earlier. I now understand why people say this is something everyone with kids needs. With this post, let me tell you why these three items are supposed to be necessary for living in Japan as a family.

Saving time with machine efficiency

Everyone agrees with the fact that raising a kid takes time. There are countless tasks to do while taking care of a baby. I used to have much more time for myself but now it almost feels like time goes faster. This is probably not the case if you work like a typical Japanese salaryman and don’t go home until 11 p.m. every night. Fortunately, the company I work for allows me to work remotely and I only go to the office once or twice a week now and I try to help my wife as much as I can.
Working remotely is one of the most effective ways to save time simply because you save time for commuting. This is exactly what I do and this gives me room for doing some housework during the day. After a few months of remote working at home, I noticed that housework can be efficient if I invest in machines. This goes back to the original idea. Three must-have items for a household with a kid.
We do not have a washer/dryer in Tachikawa Garden Town. Oakhouse apartments come with basic appliances including a washing machine which is a good thing but there was no room for us to buy a new washer/dryer for our apartment. We did, however, get a dehumidifier. It saves so much time when we have laundry on rainy days. Hanging wet laundry on the balcony doesn’t help sometimes especially on a rainy season.
We got the dehumidifier by Corona which is mostly known as a heater manufacturer in Japan. I honestly did not know that they make dehumidifier as well but it’s been working very well and we recommend it.

A car can be so much slower than a bike in short distance

What we thought about getting next was the electric bike. At first, I was not really thinking about buying but there’s an episode that changed my mind. One time, my wife and I wanted to go to a local cake shop. It’s a bit far away by walk so we decided to drive there (we do not own a car, we just used a car-sharing service. ) It takes 18 mins by walk. Guess how long it took to get there by car. It actually took us 23 mins to get there! This would have been faster if I own a car and I could just drive from my apartment but for car sharing, we need to walk 5 mins to get to the car-sharing station where the car is parked. Took us an additional 5 mins to set up a baby seat in the car. The traffic and parking took us 6 more mins. The road trip itself took us 7 mins. The electric bike takes 8 mins ( maybe 2 more mins for traffic) to get to the destination. The car beat the bike by speed for sure but it’s such an expensive, time-consuming way of traveling if you consider everything into account.
I was shocked to realize how slow a car can be in short distance traveling. On the next day, I went to the local bike shop and bought an electric bike.

The newest electric bike by Panasonic

There are many models for e-bikes in stores but there are mainly three brands. Panasonic, Bridgestone, and Yamaha. The difference in brands and the general functionality is almost the same.
You can basically choose the brand you like. Just make sure to get the new one, not second-hand. We chose Panasonic’s Gyutto, “ギュット・クルーム・EX” to be exact. It is the newest one in 2019 and it is the flagship model they offer. We did try the bike at Asahi cycle base but we bought one on their online website just because it was much cheaper.

The auto unlock function

There’s “ギュット・クルーム・EX” and “ギュット・クルーム・DX” and the difference between two is the unlocking function. EX has the auto unlock function and DX does not.
This function is basically like a car with “keyless entry“. As long as you have an electric key in the vicinity, all you have to do is to tap the ON button on the control panel and the bike unlocks automatically.

For locking, you need to lock manually by the way (but you do not need to use physical key to lock). Even though locking is basically the same, I thought this auto unlock is very useful. We plan to use this bike for grocery shopping at nearby supermarkets which means we have many bags holding when we unlock the bike. Going through a backpack and look for a key would be a nightmare. I thought this unlocking function is genius because you can basically forget about the physical keys as long as the electric key is in the bag. Unlocking takes place every time we use the bike and we plan to use the bike for a long term. I thought this actually saves a lot of time and effort down the road.

Biking helps you save money

We’re very happy with the electric bike we bought and it definitely help us a lot move around Tachikawa. Just yesterday, we went to the other side of Showa Kinen Park for fireworks and that was unreachable by buss or car. The bike allows us to go to affordable supermarkets that we could not go by walk. The bike itself was expensive but I do think the value it brings is huge and it definitely is worth the money.

Everyone knows what Roomba or Braava is: they are cleaning robots manufactured by iRobot. It is, however, not common to have cleaning robots especially if you’re living in one of Oakhouse share houses. Living in a share house usually means you only have a private room and some shared common spaces. Oakhouse takes care of common space so all you need to take care of is your private room.
You might think spending that much money on temporary housing is excessive. I actually don’t think so.
I’ve been living in Oakhouse for 5 years now, 4 years in Oakhouse Kichijoji 2 and a year in Tachikawa Garden Town. I had used Roomba while I was in Kichijoji and I recently got a Braava in Tachikawa Garden Town.
I do think owning cleaning robots make more sense while living in Oakhouse than owning ones while living in general apartments. Let me tell you the reasons why I think this way.

A life without cleaning is achievable if you live in a share house

Let’s admit. No one should spend any time on cleaning. It is better if we don’t have to do it so that we have more time on other things. I’m not just talking about certain people with less free time like busy workers or households with kids. It is about everyone. Even if you’re single living in Oakhouse, time is the most precious resource you have.

Unfortunately, the age of robots is still ahead. We do not have to worry about robots taking over our jobs just yet. There are extremely convenient/capable cleaning robots like Roomba or Braava but they can cover only certain areas in the house which means you are still not entirely free from cleaning. Areas like shower room, kitchen, windows, getting rid of dusts on lights etc… these are something you definitely have to do once in a while to live.
Living in a Oakhouse share house is a little bit different story. As I mentioned previously, your own private room is the only room you need to clean. Depending which model of you get, most roomba can take care of 10 sqm room as long as you don’t put things on the floor so that Roomba can sweep the floor for you while you’re out. And…. that is it. There’s no where else in the house that you’re supposed to clean. Oakhouse will take care of the rest.
I used Roomba for four years and I was almost completely cleaning free. It was really stress-free that I did not even have to think about it.

Braava’s square shape gets the job done

What I got last week is Braava, which is the cleaning robot manufactured by the same company as Roomba but does wipe the floor with water. What’s great is its shape. Instead of iconic round shape that Roomba always has been, Braava is actually square-shaped. This makes a lot of sense especially when it wipe the corner of the room.

The photos below are how braava cleaning along the fridge at Tachikawa Garden Town. You can see how its square shape does the job on the corners. I was pretty impressed with how smooth the machine worked.

Even if there is a table and chairs on the way, that is not an issue for Braava. It is supposed to go around without damaging the furniture. The model I got has a water spray function but it never sprays on any furniture.
I have a baby chair hanging on the table just like this photo below. Even though braava can go around the chairs, this chair definitely makes it easier for Braava to clean the floor.

One last thing to note. Try not to put things on the floor. It does not matter if you own Roomba or Braava. If you have too many things on the floor, it could potentially damage the robots. I guess this is more of a case for Roomba than Braava. I would say Braava is much simpler than Braava as a machine. It is hard to break it unless you accidentally step on it or something.
These machines are not the most affordable machine you can have for your room but it is definitely a machine that makes your life easy.